Re: DS: SAW versus APSW versus RFAC

At 19:33 09/03/98 -0600, you wrote:
SNIP
>For slightly different tack........
>
>I ran across a couple of references to WWII where it was stated that
the
>50.cal HMG was regularly used in the sniper function. Using its
anchored
>tripod it was extremely stable and was fired in a single (or two
>depending on the skill of the gunner) round action. Then the gunner had
>to manually rechamber the gun to fire a next time.  Thousand yard
sniping
>was not uncommon. It may have been done in WWI but I haven't done
enough
>research to know. 
>
>Tom Hughes

	The .50cal wasn't really available in WW1 (perhaps at the very
end?), being devised as an anti-tank weapon- I seem to recall that it
was,
for a while, illegal to use it directly against personnel.  On the
long-range sniping point, another goodie was the otherwise obsolete
anti-tank rifle (PTRD & PTRS) as used by the Red Army in WW2- they
remained
numerous in Soviet infantry units to the end of the war.

Rob

"Rob Paul

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